Hydration - Scenario Week

Not very comforting when all that separates you between

countless tonnes of water and two hungry orcas is a leaky window.

While not directly tied to scenario paintball, i feel that it is apropos to mention hydration this week as scenario games often run a long time, and thus require players to pay special attention to their hydration.

Why do I need to hydrate?
As Bonami Armah so succinctly put it, "Your body needs water, so drink that shit."

I don't feel thirsty on the field, so there's no reason for me to drink water.
Any medical professional will tell you that during periods of extreme exercise, by the time you feel thirsty, you are probably already dehydrated, and you may not even feel thirsty at all.

Niagara Falls

How do you know you're drinking enough water?
It's hard to drink too much water, but don't force yourself, your body knows when you've had enough. If your urine is a dark yellow colour, it means that you're not getting enough water, it should preferably be clear and colourless.

I drink and I drink, but I still feel thirsty, what's happening?
It's possible that you don't have enough electrolytes. During periods of prolonged exercise, make sure you supplement your water consumption with something like Gatorade, or any other drink that contains an appreciable amount of sodium and potassium. Without these essential ions, you're body won't retain the water you're giving it.

Water: Impress your friends!

How do I stay hydrated while keeping my paintball goggles on?
Other than the obvious solution of taking a break, any good paintball vest will contain a decent hydration pouch, that you can fill with a hydration system. If you don't have a vest and use something like a pod pack, then the Paintball Water Pod is a good solution. If neither option is available to you, you can always fall back on an aluminum water bottle with a straw.

Paintball Water Pod

Here's a small hint about hydration systems: Many hydration systems bought through paintball/tactical/military websites are a little overpriced. You can buy the same quality of system from hiking/mountain equipment retailers for a better price, and often find larger capacity systems.

While we're on the topic of water, you should

check out Metromint. I hate bottled water but

really liked this stuff. It uses real mint, and doesn't 

have any sweetening (real or artificial) added.

Plague Pod Mod

A lot people that run limited capacity set-ups (particularly those that run 30 round tac caps) have most likely seen Allen Paintball's 30 Round Tac-Pods. Before I got my Milsig I got about six of these, and I know that Patrick still uses them. They're cheap, and you can fit a couple of them inside a standard AR-15 mag pouch.

However when you try to pour them into your hopper this happens:

As you can see, the opening on the pods is just slightly too small so the balls won't come out without some shaking, which is obviously not what you want to have to deal with on the field. As opposed to widening the entire hole, I've got a quick fix that only requires the use of a pocket knife.

Take one of the corners of the triangular opening:

And simply scallop it out like so:

Then your balls will flow freely.

Sorry for the quality of the photos, I originally posted this mod over a year ago on the X7OG and have raised my picture standards a fair amount since then.